A judge today poured scorn on the prosecution's case against dozing Boro fan Adrian Carr for being drunk at the Riverside Stadium.

Judge Michael Taylor questioned a stadium steward's previous description of the snoozing fan as "paralytic drunk" when lifting him from his North Stand seat.

Mr Carr, 28, of Caithness Road, Teesville, this afternoon won his appeal against his conviction in February, when he was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay #150 costs for being drunk in a sporting arena. His conviction was quashed.

Video evidence was played to Teesside Crown Court, showing him standing upright and walking steadily with police officers just a minute later.

The judge told prosecutor Stephen Duffield: "It's the most remarkable recovery from paralytic drunk that I can imagine."

He said Mr Carr appeared to stand perfectly reasonably, answered questions, cooperated when handcuffed and walked away coherently.

"That doesn't seem to be the actions of a drunk," he added.

He said he was "astonished" that the case had proceeded the way it had.

The court was also shown footage from the custody office at Middlesbrough police station, where Mr Carr gave details like his name and date of birth, and protested: "There's nothing wrong with me."

The judge added he and his colleagues were used to seeing drunken behaviour in other cases.

It usually involved people falling over, acting in a disorderly way and refusing to answer questions, rather than giving information to police in a "perfectly coherent way".

Today he told how he found him slumped in his seat, unconscious with the smell of alcohol on his breath. He said he got no response when he shook him, and stewards lifted him from the seat, took him down the steps to the concourse, called St John Ambulance and handed him over to the police.

Ian West, defending, suggested Mr Carr was simply disorientated and, having failed to find a medical reason for his state, Mr Brown "jumped to the conclusion that he must have been drunk", and the situation went out of control when the police got involved.

Mr Brown responded by saying: "In my opinion, he was drunk when we moved him from his seat."

But he agreed that the video evidence showed Mr Carr standing still and not swaying, and was not abusive or disorderly.